Cambodian women (C) arrested for their alledged involvement in an illegal surrogacy business are pictured outside a Phnom Penh municipal court on June 25, 2018. Police said on June 23 that a raid by Cambodian authorities on an illegal surrogacy business in Phnom Penh uncovered 33 women paid to deliver babies for Chinese couples. (AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Cambodian surrogates freed after agreeing to keep babies

Eleven women allegedly paid to be surrogate mothers have been released on bail after agreeing to keep the babies, Cambodia’s trafficking czar said Wednesday, as the poor Southeast Asian nation seeks to regulate the womb-for-hire trade.

The women were charged in November with human trafficking and acting as intermediaries for surrogacy agents after they were discovered in a raid on a house in the capital Phnom Penh.

They have been in custody since the raid, with some giving birth behind bars.

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